Assessing Idioms for Implementing Features with Flexible Binding Times

Maintainability of a software product line depends on the possibility to modularize its variations, often expressed in terms of optionally selected features. Conventional modularization techniques bind variations either statically or dynamically, but ideally it should be possible to flexibly choose between both. In this paper, we propose improved solutions for modularizing and flexibly binding varying features in form of idioms in aspect-oriented languages AspectJ and CaesarJ. We evaluate the idioms qualitatively by discussing their advantages and deficiencies and quantitatively by means of metrics.